Businesses of all sizes frequently send and receive trade documents with other businesses. Examples of trade documents include invoices, payment notices, purchase orders, change requests, medical records, etc. Many different types of trade documents exist. Trade documents allow businesses to formalize transactions of money, goods and services, and may also be used to create an audit trail for such transactions. Trade documents may also be exchanged between business groups within an individual business.
Historically, trade documents have been generated in paper format and transmitted via so-called “snail mail” services. More recently, widespread business computing and networking technologies have allowed for trade documents to be converted to trade data (i.e., electronic representations of trade documents) and transmitted electronically. To do so, a sender and a recipient (i.e., different businesses or business groups within an individual business) typically agree on a standard trade data format, and must then use messaging applications that support the standard natively, and/or develop interfaces for other messaging applications to support the standard.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) defines one such set of standards. Specifically, EDI defines the structures, character sets, and data elements required for various types of trade data. Further, EDI Implementation Guidelines provide specifications for implementing EDI support. Developing software to satisfy the EDI Implementation Guidelines requires abundant resources, effort, and locks businesses into using specific trade data formats. Many businesses lack the financial overhead, manpower, and/or inclination to successfully adopt EDI standards.